Port fears losing super-freighters

Panama Canal expansion key to future trade

April 21, 2008|By Scott Wyman Staff writer

A Port Everglades expansion plan is in jeopardy because of a longtime promise to save nearby mangroves and that could make it harder to compete for new cargo business with other East Coast communities.

The proposed new berths and longer turning notch are key to attracting super-size freighters that will bring a flood of goods to Eastern ports from Asia once the Panama Canal is widened in the next decade. No berth at Port Everglades currently could handle the ships, nor could they turn around to leave.

The port also must deepen its channel for the ships. Those plans, too, are under fire from environmentalists, and shipping executives fear the federal government will be less likely to approve the deepening if the port does not press ahead with the dockside construction.

The role the expansion plays in competing for trade once the Panama Canal is widened has received little attention during debate by county commissioners. But in the run-up to a decision expected next month, port businesses are focusing on the point. They equate no expansion to a slowdown in the port's booming cargo business.

"The real loss is in terms of the business we could gain," said Norman Spencer of Eller Maritime Services and president of the Port Everglades business association. "These ships will go right by here to the ports north of us."

Under the proposal, the turning notch in the port's southern area would be lengthened over the next decade to add one berth for a super-size freighter as well as to set up docks to receive crushed rock for area construction. The discharge canal from the Florida Power & Light Co. plant would be rerouted to lengthen another dock.

The project is expected to cost $113 million and require destruction of 12 acres of mangrove.

The port would need permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to destroy the mangroves because port officials signed an agreement to preserve forever 48 acres of mangroves. That was part of a 1987 deal with the state to allow construction of the freight yards and docks north of the Dania Cut-off Canal.

Five of the nine county commissioners - John Rodstrom, Ilene Lieberman, Ken Keechl, Kristin Jacobs and Suzanne Gunzburger - have challenged the expansion, particularly in light of the mangrove promise. The deal barely survived a public hearing earlier this month and commissioners will decide May 13 whether to even complete an economic and environmental review.

Lieberman said the port needs to find other ways to accommodate the large ships, referred to in the industry as post-Panamax.

"The port is a giant economic engine and you want to make sure it continues to generate jobs and business," she said. "Post-Panamax is important. But there have to be other ways because to do it this way means to renege on a permanent promise. Ask most people what they think permanent means."

Once expanded, the Panama Canal will accommodate ships capable of carrying twice the number of cargo containers as vessels that currently ply the waterway. Completion is expected in 2014.

The shipping industry has expected more cargo from Asia will head to the East Coast rather than be unloaded at West Coast ports and then shipped across country by rail or truck.

Ports across the Eastern seaboard are exploring plans to handle the larger freighters. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for instance, recently obtained a new deep-water container terminal and is midway through a dredging project to deepen some of its channels.

Executives who do business at Port Everglades fear a loss of trade to other ports ready for the ships.

An economic analysis for the port predicts the number of post-Panamax freighters eventually will comprise 15 percent of cargo vessels calling at the port. The overall expansion project would create 5,600 jobs and have a $252 million economic impact in the tri-county area over the next 20 years.

Port Everglades is the nation's 12th-busiest container port, and the number of cargo containers passing through grew from 570,000 in 2003 to 949,000 last year. Projections are that the number of cargo containers could triple by 2026 if the expansion moves forward.

Port administrators believe cargo business would grow at modest rates and eventually cap out if the expansion is not pursued. They said post-Panamax freighters would be unlikely because a ship would have to wait offshore for two adjacent berths along the Intracoastal Waterway to be available at the same time along with their cranes, and then would have back up rather than turn around to leave.

Scott Wyman can be reached at swyman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4511.